• Short-term path (STP). Upgrade to each new service pack (for example, from 23.4 to 24.1). If you choose this path, you will need to go through all the interim service packs in order to upgrade to the following release.

• Long-term path (LTP). Upgrade directly from one release to the next (for example, from 16.2.100 to 24.3, the next LTP release), without having to upgrade to each of the interim service packs.

Refer to the release's upgrade path details below.

This version is a long term path (LTP) release, meaning that you can upgrade to version 24.3 either directly from 16.2.100, or from 24.1.

ALM Octane 24.3 requires JDK 21. You must install JDK 21 before upgrading ALM Octane.

Before you install JDK 21, make a backup copy of the default Java keystore (cacerts) file from the existing JDK 11 installation. Then, after you install JDK 21, use the backup copy to replace the cacerts file that is provided with JDK 21. This avoids potential issues with the new cacerts file.

The upgrade will trigger Elasticsearch re-index. Indexes will be re-indexed to version 8.

When a space's post-upgrader is running, its Elasticsearch features are not all disabled during the entire process. Instead, features are in downtime only when an index they are dependent on is in the downtime phase of its re-indexing.

For details, see "Prepare for Elasticsearch re-indexing" in the 24.3 Upgrade Guide: Upgrade guides.

Note that re-index must be completed. You will not be able to use ALM Octane in the next release if re-index was not completed successfully.

ALM Octane 24.3 requires OData 4.0. OData version 2.0 services will no longer work and will be fully replaced by OData version 4.0.

To continue using OData, your connection must be updated to OData version 4.0. The OData 4.0 URI format is:

<https://<server>/odata/v4/shared_spaces/<space_ID>/workspaces/<workspace_ID>/

This version is an STP service pack, meaning that you can only upgrade to 24.1 from 23.4. If you have not yet upgraded to ALM Octane 23.4, upgrade now.

ALM Octane 24.1 requires Elasticsearch 8.x. This is enforced on startup.

This version is an STP service pack, meaning that you can only upgrade to 23.4 from 16.2.100. If you have not yet upgraded to ALM Octane 16.2.100, upgrade now.

This version is a long term path (LTP) release, meaning that you can upgrade to ALM Octane 16.2.100 either directly from 16.1.100, or from 16.1.200.

ALM Octane now also supports Elasticsearch 8.6.0. We recommend using Elasticsearch 7.17.8 or 8.6.0.

If you are upgrading directly from 16.1.100, verify that re-index has completed successfully in all spaces. For details, see "LTP Path: Verify Elasticsearch re-indexing (ES version 8.x)" in the 16.2.100 Upgrade Guide.

If you are using MS SQL Server databases with the FILL_EXISTING site_action, the database administrator should set READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT ON on all databases used by ALM Octane, before deploying the new version. For details, see "Changes to MS SQL Server databases" in the 16.2.100 Upgrade Guide.

This version is an STP service pack, meaning that you can only upgrade to 16.1.200 from 16.1.100. If you have not yet upgraded to ALM Octane 16.1.100, upgrade now.

In this service pack, Elasticsearch re-index is mandatory.

• Space re-index. Spaces that have not been re-indexed are not accessible to users. You must complete re-index before upgrading.

  If you do not, you can re-index after upgrading, but access to the shared space is blocked until re-index is completed successfully.

• Site re-index.ALM Octane does not enforce re-index at the site level. It is the responsibility of the site admin to verify that site re-index is complete.

  If re-index is not complete, the index will not perform properly following upgrade. For example, audit data may be inaccurate. In addition, upgrade to Elasticsearch 8 may fail in future releases.

This version is a long term path (LTP) release, meaning that you can upgrade to ALM Octane 16.1.100 either directly from 16.0.100, or from 16.0.400.

The upgrade will trigger Elasticsearch re-index. It is important to note that the mechanism for Elasticsearch re-index has been changed to significantly minimize downtime.

When a space's post-upgrader is running, its Elasticsearch features are not all disabled during the entire process. Instead, features are in downtime only when an index they are dependent on is in the downtime phase of its re-indexing.

For details, see "Prepare for Elasticsearch re-indexing" in the 16.1.100 Upgrade Guide.

Note that re-index must be completed. You will not be able to use ALM Octane in the next release if re-index was not completed successfully.

ALM Octane 16.1.100 uses Hazelcast v.5.1. This requires changes to the hazelcast.xml configuration file. For details, see "Update the hazelcast.xml configuration file" in the 16.1.100 Upgrade Guide.

You can now use ALM Octane in Docker. For details, see "Upgrade ALM Octane in Docker"  in the 16.1.100 Upgrade Guide.

When upgrading to ALM Octane 16.1.100 directly from 16.0.100 (LTP upgrade path) in Oracle environments, if you have a space with more than 500 workspaces, you may encounter an error message regarding the FixVulnerabilitiesCountOfWIUpgrader Data upgrader. For a workaround, see “Troubleshooting a Data upgrader failure” in the 16.1.100 Upgrade Guide.

This version is a service pack, meaning that you can only upgrade to 16.0.400 from 16.0.300. If you have not yet upgraded to ALM Octane 16.0.300, upgrade now.

ALM Octane now supports the HTTP/2 protocol. For details, refer to the post-upgrade section in the ALM Octane Upgrade Guide.

This version is a service pack, meaning that you can only upgrade to 16.0.300 from 16.0.200. If you have not yet upgraded to ALM Octane 16.0.200, upgrade now.

As we communicated earlier (see https://portal.microfocus.com/s/article/KM000003192), we recommend using Elasticsearch version 7.16.2 to prevent a potential log4j security breach in the Elasticsearch server.

When upgrading to ALM Octane 16.0.300 in Oracle environments, if you have a space with more than 500 workspaces, you may encounter an error message regarding the FixVulnerabilitiesCountOfWIUpgrader Data upgrader. This is a known issue. For a workaround, see “Troubleshooting a Data upgrader failure” in the ALM Octane 16.0.300 Upgrade Guide.

This version is a service pack, meaning that you can only upgrade to 16.0.200 from 16.0.100. If you have not yet upgraded to ALM Octane 16.0.100, upgrade now.

ALM Octane 16.0.100 requires Elasticsearch version 7.16.2. If you are using an earlier version of Elasticsearch, you must upgrade to 7.16.2.

Note that you cannot upgrade to ALM Octane 16.0.100 if you still have indexes created in Elasticsearch 5.x which have not yet been re-indexed (as described in previous upgrade guides). To verify that all your spaces are up-to-date, open Settings > Site > Spaces. The ELS Maintenance Status of all your spaces should be Done.

This version is a long term path release (LTP), meaning that you can upgrade to ALM Octane 16.0.100 either directly from 15.1.20, or from 15.1.90.

If you are upgrading from 15.1.20 (previous LTP release), there are various pre-upgrade and post-upgrade steps required, as described in the upgrade guide.

For details on what was added in each of the service packs since the previous LTP release, see:

• What's new in 15.1.40

• What's new in 15.1.60

• What's new in 15.1.90